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Maryland Babies
nynews
member
s/o birthday parties let's talk 1st year bday
nynews
member
since there's been some talk on birthday parties lately wanna see what you guys have done or are planning for the big one year birthday. we're coming up on DD's first birthday and just not sure what I wanna do. I want to mark the occasion but it seems like a lot of work and effort and worried she won't enjoy it. we've starting singing "happy birthday" to her to get her used to it and first time her face crumbled and she burst into tears. we've got it so she doesn't cry but it still seems to freak her out. I guess a bunch of people staring at you and singing with loud clapping at the end might be scary!
How did you celebrate LO's birthday (or plan to)
If you had a party...
Where did you have it? (house, backyard, rented a place?)
How many guests?
Did you cook or get it catered? And if catered please feel free to add recommendations.
Would you say you went "all out" or would you say it was "low key?"
Birthday theme?
Any special moments or details worth sharing that added to the day?
Any regrets or things "not to do?"
Bonus points if you add pictures! But I'm not holding my breath I can't even change my siggy picture.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: s/o birthday parties let's talk 1st year bday
Where did you have it? (house, backyard, rented a place?) We had it at my parents' house. I'd have preferred to have it at my house, but it's too small.
How many guests? About 35.
Did you cook or get it catered? And if catered please feel free to add recommendations. We got party trays from Giant (sandwiches, veggies), meatballs in the crockpot, we had homemade pasta salad, and I made the cake/cupcakes. Very simple on the food.
Would you say you went "all out" or would you say it was "low key?" Medium. We didn't rent a bounce house or anything, but we had lots of decorations and invited a lot of people. I love party planning, and let's be honest, the first birthday party is for you, not your LO. So if you want to go all out, go for it!
Birthday theme? Jungle
Any special moments or details worth sharing that added to the day? DS was sick. He was better than he was the day before but still a little off. He wasn't very smiley or energetic, but this was unavoidable. We did do the smash cake, but he wasn't that interested. I'm just mentioning this because obviously we wish he had been feeling better, but we just went with the flow and everyone had a good time.
Any regrets or things "not to do?" We did not open presents at the party and I highly recommend this. DS would never have sat through it. DH and I opened most of his presents after he was in bed and left out a couple toys for him to open the next day. They're really too young for this stuff, so you have to take that into account!
Bonus points if you add pictures! Here's a link to my blog post about DS's party. My favorite decoration was the month pictures. So easy and everyone loved it.
BFP#1: 01/10, M/C 6w
BFP#2: 06/10, M/C 5w
BFP#3: 09/10, DS born June 1, 2011
BFP#4: 07/12, M/C 5w3d
BFP#5: 12/12, EDD 08/18/13
My Blog: Decorate This
Baby Girl #2 is on her way!
This is my fear that no matter how hard I try to get the timing down right around her naps-she won't nap well or the timing will be all off. And she definitely needs her nap. And it'll be an all out "It's my party, I'll cry if I want to" kinda thing.
SarahKate I love how you decorated especially the month pictures. I definitely want to do that but was worried about making it a hanging banner and your way would definitely be a lot easier for this non-diyer. Were the animal picture holders part of the party decorations or did you find them somewhere else?
I did get the picture holders from Party City but they weren't part of the same set of decorations as the other stuff.
Also, we scheduled the party so it would be after his nap, but he didn't take one that day. He was too distracted at the party to have a complete meltdown, but every kid is different. Just plan the best you can and go for it!
BFP#1: 01/10, M/C 6w
BFP#2: 06/10, M/C 5w
BFP#3: 09/10, DS born June 1, 2011
BFP#4: 07/12, M/C 5w3d
BFP#5: 12/12, EDD 08/18/13
My Blog: Decorate This
Where did you have it? (house, backyard, rented a place?)backyard/house
How many guests? ~50 (we have a large family)
Did you cook or get it catered? And if catered please feel free to add recommendations. We ordered prepared foods from Graul's in Timonium
Would you say you went "all out" or would you say it was "low key?" It was pretty all out, but not the most over-the-top I've ever seen.
Birthday theme? Sock Monkey
Any special moments or details worth sharing that added to the day?
Any regrets or things "not to do?" Nope, we had a blast
We went a wee bit overboard. (Shocking, I know.
Where did you have it? (house, backyard, rented a place?) Our house. It was early September and the pool was still open, which worked out great.
How many guests? About 75 total.
Did you cook or get it catered? And if catered please feel free to add recommendations. It was catered by the Gourmet Girls in Owings Mills - who happen to be our cousins. We had a boatload of food, sangria, lemonade and other drinks, cupcakes and a smash cake. The food was amazing.
Would you say you went "all out" or would you say it was "low key?" All out.
Birthday theme? Where the Wild Things Are. Guests had to walk up our driveway; and we hung lines from the beginning of the book on the trees as they walked up ("That very night in Maddox's room a forest grew...and grew...and grew...until the ceiling hung with vines...and the walls became the world all around...." We also used chalk to draw monster footprints along that path. I color copied illustrations from the book and used them to make flag banners, etc etc. It was pretty cool.
Any special moments or details worth sharing that added to the day? The whole day was pretty special. Smash cake was a good time even though M didn't want much to do with actually eating it. An etsy artist also made really adorable Max (from WWWTA) cupcake decorations with Maddox's face on them.
Any regrets or things "not to do?" Not that come to mind except that we did end up opening gifts. I don't "regret" that - in fact it became sort of unavoidable as people like to see their gifts opened. But with 75 guests and a totally uninterested 1 year old, it was challenging.
Bonus points if you add pictures! I've totally fallen off the wagon with blogging, but there's an entry with a bunch of pictures here: https://lovelylittleworld.com/2011/09/04/and-almost-over-a-year/.
lovelylittleworld
BFP#2 1/12/12 ~ Missed M/C 8w2d
How did you celebrate LO's birthday (or plan to)
If you had a party...
Where did you have it? (house, backyard, rented a place?)
Used a hall, due to number of guests and time of year. (If summer could have had it outside at home) My dad is a member of the affiliated organization, so we paid only a small cleaning fee to use it.
How many guests?
70- BIG Italian Family
Did you cook or get it catered? And if catered please feel free to add recommendations.
Nope, no caterer. We did a weinie bar: hot dogs, bratwurst and italian sausages with all kinds of toppings. We also had pasta salad, chips, fruit and veggies.
My husband custom designed the cake based on pictures from the storybook We had it made by Snickerdoddles. It was awesome!
Would you say you went "all out" or would you say it was "low key?"
Went all out.
Birthday theme?
The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Evie started out in the NICU and by her first birthday she was wearing a 2T. It seemed appropriate.
Any special moments or details worth sharing that added to the day?
She wouldn't touch the cupcake we got her to smash. We had to give her a spoon. She doesn't like to touch sticky stuff to this day!
Any regrets or things "not to do?"
I stressed out way too much. My husband actually suggested cancelling the party a couple days before hand because I was such a mess about it. However, I think a huge part of the problem was that I had some emotional baggage because of the preceived lack of support I got from friends and family after Evie's early birth. I realized I was throwing this huge party and most of the poeple there had never met my child even though she was a year old.
In retrospect the party was a huge step in helping me let go of the anger I felt towards some of the people who disappeared from my life after my daughter was born prematurely.